


Wizards, goblins, and centaurs (oh my!)

by jabberingaway



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Goblins, Independent!Harry, M/M, Smart!Harry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-14
Updated: 2014-05-14
Packaged: 2018-01-24 20:04:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1615388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jabberingaway/pseuds/jabberingaway
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>7 years after his parents' deaths, Harry enters the wizarding world with the help of the goblins. How will this early entry change his life?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wizards, goblins, and centaurs (oh my!)

**Author's Note:**

> Slash eventually, after Harry hits puberty. 
> 
> I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter. Please don't sue.

“Boy! Get down here now!” screeched Aunt Petunia. 

SMACK

Harry Potter’s head was ringing and his forehead pulsed where it had hit the top of his cupboard under the stairs. He rubbed his head, moaning. He hadn’t hit his head that hard since he was six and a growth-spurt had left him two inches taller overnight. Dudley had been furious that Harry had caught up to him in height and had punched Harry in the stomach. In the two years since, Harry hadn’t grown at all. He was usually careful when he sat up in the morning, but Aunt Petunia had scared him. He couldn’t remember the last time Aunt Petunia had been awake before him. 

“Harry!” yelled Uncle Vernon. 

Harry winced as he sat up. He looked the hand that had been rubbing his head for signs of blood. Did Uncle Vernon just call him by name? Either this was the strangest morning of his life, or he had hit is head a lot harder than he thought. 

The doors to the cupboard swung open and Harry squinted as light poured into his cupboard. His eyes adjusted and he found himself staring into the face of a creature unlike anything he had ever seen. The creature was wrinkly and had a very long nose. Its ears jutted out of its head at right angle and were very long as well. Harry noticed that even standing it did not reach Harry’s sitting height. As it withdrew its hand from the cupboard door, Harry gasped at the sight of its fingers, which were easily twice as long as a human’s. 

Harry looked around. His aunt and uncle were standing against the wall, as far away from Harry and the creature as they could get. The creature looked at him and said, “Are you Mr. Harry Potter?”

“Yes,” answered Harry. 

“I am Griphook. First goblin of the Potter vaults.”

Griphook waited, looking at Harry. Harry struggled to find words.

“Goblin?”

Griphook frowned and turned to face Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. 

“Muggles. Explain to me why MR. HARRY POTTER is confused by the concept of a GOBLIN.”

Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon tried to flatten themselves into the wall, as though they hoped it would move allowing them to put more space between themselves and Griphook, 

“Well, you see,” began Uncle Vernon, “we thought it was best to raise him to be normal.”

“Normal?” asked Harry and Griphook in unison. Harry thought about his childhood spent in the cupboard, doing chores, and eating scraps. That was normal?

“Yes. No freaks in this house,” spat Uncle Vernon. 

Griphook approached Vernon slowly. Harry took the opportunity to scurry out of his cupboard. 

“Whom are you calling a freak?” asked Griphook with warning in his voice. 

“You! Him! All of your kind!” said Uncle Vernon.

“Vernon!” said Aunt Petunia, “Don’t make him angry!”

Griphook’s frown deepened and he waved his hand. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia both tried to say something but couldn’t. 

Harry gasped. 

“What did you just do?” he asked.

Griphook turned to look at Harry. Harry felt uncomfortable as he felt Griphook’s eyes scanning him, his too big tattered clothes, and the thin blanket in the cupboard behind him. 

“Magic.”

***

“Mr. Potter, your father, Mr. James Potter, was a very powerful, very wealthy wizard. His family, your family, can trace its magical roots back to before the beginning of recorded time. Your mother, Ms. Lily Potter, was a new witch, the first in her family to show magical abilities. She was talented and could hold her own with the Potter family.”

Griphook held out his hand and a goblet appeared. He took a sip. Harry looked wide-eyed at the goblin that sat perched on the coffee table in front of him and then at his aunt and uncle on the couch across from him. Aunt Petunia’s lips had become very thin, and Uncle Vernon’s face was turning red as he shouted but no sound came out. 

“Seven years ago today, an evil wizard killed your parents and tried to kill you. Something went wrong. The evil wizard vanished and you lived.”  
Harry looked at his aunt and uncle, “I thought you said they died in a car crash!” They both moved their mouths, but still, no sound came out.

“They certainly did not die in a car crash,” said Griphook angrily. “They were very powerful wizards. They died at the hands of the most evil wizard of our time.”

Harry sat shocked. Griphook took another sip from his goblet and then set it down next to him. Aunt Petunia winced at the sight of a goblet on her precious coffee table without a coaster. 

“Mr. Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, thought it best to take you to this house,” said the goblin with a tone that Harry took to mean that he did not agree. 

“He was the leader of a group your parents belonged to that fought against the evil wizard. Mr. Dumbledore was the executor of their will, and he chose not to have it read. He thought that with all of the chaos at the time, you would be better off with family.”

Griphook turned to glare at Aunt Petunia.

“However, Gringotts, the magical bank, automatically opens unread wills seven years after the clients’ passing. I am here to escort you to the reading of your parents’ will,” finished the goblin.


End file.
